[Transesophageal Doppler echocardiography in the diagnosis of atrial septal defect]

To assess the usefulness of transesophageal Doppler echocardiography (TEE) in diagnosing atrial septal defect (ASD), we studied eight cases with secundum type ASD, in which the diagnosis was confirmed by cardiac catheterization and surgery. In all cases, TEE provided clear images of the interatrial septum with its defect. Shunt flow through the defect was observed by color Doppler technique, and its velocity was measured using the FFT mode. In two cases, right-to-left shunt blood flow was detected. Two types of probes were used in this study, a lateral scanning probe and a longitudinal scanning probe. The scanning plane of the former was perpendicular to the axis of the probe, and that of the latter was parallel to it. The two probes facilitated the measurement of the two right-angled dimensions, with which we could calculate the defect area, assuming the defect to be an ellipse. The volume of a left-to-right shunt was obtained by multiplying the defect area by the integration of flow velocity against time. Shunt volume per cardiac cycle obtained by this method correlated well with that obtained by the Fick's method during cardiac catheterization. In six cases without a right-to-left shunt, the coefficient of correlation was 0.98, and in all eight cases it was reduced to 0.72. Thus, we concluded that TEE is useful for diagnosing and evaluating ASD.